fragility

As if installing software on Ubuntu wasn’t easy enough, there’s now an easier way: installing applications from the web with a single click. Read all about it here, including how it works and security issues. Oh, and this is an upcoming Gutsy feature.

And this is not only easy for users, it’s easy for developers as well. They won’t have to develop any new packages, they will just have to place new links on their websites. Now, ideally, the best way to do this was not having an apt:// link, but something like a install:// link, which would support the main distributions and package installing tools (apt, rpm, emerge, and so on). It would then check which distribution you are running and do whatever was needed to install the package. If those who developed this method are reading this, please think about it before this method becomes popular.

But the big advantage here is not only in how easy it becomes to install software: it’s also in a big approach to the method Windows users have of installing software.

Although it’s really easy to install software on Ubuntu, many Windows users still find it weird that they have to use an application to install your software instead of going to an application’s website and download the installer. You can still find many newbies on the help channels asking stuff like “oh I downloaded this file but I don’t know what to do with it”. Ok, the problem here is also that many application websites probably don’t have distribution specific instructions.

So let’s just hope that developers notice this effort and start using this feature ASAP.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 8:19 pm and is filed under gnu/linux, desktop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.